Atlantis docks with space station one final time - Houston Chronicle

Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station.

At 9:08 a.m. today, the shuttle flew near the space station and performed a 360-degree back flip in space, allowing astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory to photograph the belly of the shuttle.

These images will be sent to imagery experts on the ground who will ensure that the shuttle belly's heat shield tiles were not significantly damaged during Friday's launch.

After the back-flip maneuver, commander Chris Ferguson guided Atlantis toward the station and docked shortly after 10 a.m.

And with that, Atlantis' crew began transferring all that cargo they brought to orbit.

Atlantis spent a nearly flawless first full day in orbit on Saturday, with the space shuttle's crew inspecting the vehicle to ensure it sustained no significant damage during launch.

Although a final assessment of the shuttle's heat shield won't be made until later this week, upon first appearance it looks to be in good condition. During the last mission of the space shuttle program the vehicle, overall, is behaving very well, NASA officials said.

"I couldn't be happier with where we are right now," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.

The four astronauts aboard Atlantis — Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim — spent a busy Saturday in space using a robotic arm with a camera attached to inspect the shuttle's nose and the leading edges of its wings for impact damage.

It's been more than two decades since a shuttle has flown with so few crew members, and there are typically six or seven astronauts on the vehicle to assist with these inspections.

"We normally do have some more hands on board, but I'm happy to report that our four-person crew is staying well ahead of the timeline," Cain said. "And that's saying a lot for flight day two."

NASA assigned just four astronauts to the flight because it wanted to pack the spacecraft with as many supplies as possible for a delivery run to the International Space Station.

Significantly, Atlantis will deliver a year's worth of food to the six space station crew members.

eric.berger@chron.com

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Atlantis docks with space station one final time - Houston Chronicle

Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station.

At 9:08 a.m. today, the shuttle flew near the space station and performed a 360-degree back flip in space, allowing astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory to photograph the belly of the shuttle.

These images will be sent to imagery experts on the ground who will ensure that the shuttle belly's heat shield tiles were not significantly damaged during Friday's launch.

After the back-flip maneuver, commander Chris Ferguson guided Atlantis toward the station and docked shortly after 10 a.m.

And with that, Atlantis' crew began transferring all that cargo they brought to orbit.

Atlantis spent a nearly flawless first full day in orbit on Saturday, with the space shuttle's crew inspecting the vehicle to ensure it sustained no significant damage during launch.

Although a final assessment of the shuttle's heat shield won't be made until later this week, upon first appearance it looks to be in good condition. During the last mission of the space shuttle program the vehicle, overall, is behaving very well, NASA officials said.

"I couldn't be happier with where we are right now," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.

The four astronauts aboard Atlantis — Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley, and mission specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim — spent a busy Saturday in space using a robotic arm with a camera attached to inspect the shuttle's nose and the leading edges of its wings for impact damage.

It's been more than two decades since a shuttle has flown with so few crew members, and there are typically six or seven astronauts on the vehicle to assist with these inspections.

"We normally do have some more hands on board, but I'm happy to report that our four-person crew is staying well ahead of the timeline," Cain said. "And that's saying a lot for flight day two."

NASA assigned just four astronauts to the flight because it wanted to pack the spacecraft with as many supplies as possible for a delivery run to the International Space Station.

Significantly, Atlantis will deliver a year's worth of food to the six space station crew members.

eric.berger@chron.com

View the original article here

New Year's Eve tornadoes kill 6 in Ark., Mo. - Houston Chronicle

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Tornadoes fueled by unusually warm air pummeled the South and Midwest on Friday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more across Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. Forecasters said storms could hit along a stretch from near Chicago to New Orleans later in the evening as New Year's Eve celebrations begin.

Three people died in the northwestern Arkansas hamlet of Cincinnati when a tornado touched down just before sunrise, and three others died when a storm spawned by the same weather system ripped up the Missouri countryside near Rolla. A number of storms were also reported in the St. Louis area.

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said storms later Friday could do more damage from northern Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico as communities prepare to mark the start of the new year. Forecasters posted tornado watches for the region that were set to run until 8 p.m.

"It sucked me out of my house and carried me across the road and dropped me," Chris Sisemore of Cincinnati told The Associated Press on Friday. "I was Superman for a while. ... You're just free-floating through the air. Trees are knocking you and smacking you down."

Sisemore said he tried to crawl under his bed and cling to the carpet, fearful a nearby pecan tree would fall into his home. As he nursed cuts, scrapes and bruises to his arms, knees and back, he recalled opening his eyes as he flew because he didn't believe he'd see 2011.

"I wanted to see the end coming. You're only going to see it one time and I thought that was it," he said. "It takes more than a tornado to get me."

In south-central Missouri, 19-year-old Megan Ross and her 64-year-old grandmother Loretta Anderson died at a Lecoma farm where their family lived among three mobile homes and two frame houses, Dent County Emergency Management Coordinator Brad Nash said.

A mother and an infant in the trailer were able to run to a sturdier home, he said.

"We found debris from one of the trailers a mile away," Nash said. "One of the frames of the trailer was 15 feet up in a tree. All the frames were all twisted up," and refrigerator from one of the mobile homes was found 200 yards away, he said.

Another woman was killed north of Rolla, not far from Lecoma, when a tornado destroyed a home, according to emergency managers in Phelps County.

Phelps County Emergency Management Director Sandy North identified that county's victim as Alice Cox, 69, who was from Belle, Mo., and was in the Rolla area visiting a friend.

In Arkansas, Gerald Wilson, 88, and his wife, Mamie, 78, died in their home and Dick Murray, 78, died after being caught by the storm while milking cows, Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder said.

Sisemore's mother, Margie Sisemore, said her son thought a tree had come crashing through his window.

"He jumped under his bed, said it grabbed his legs — took him up through the ceiling and he landed over yonder," she said, gesturing across the street near where the Wilsons died.

At Fort Leonard Wood, a storm damaged 20 homes in a neighborhood that houses officers. The fort directed essential personnel to report for duty and that all nonessential personnel should stay away. Spokesman Jeff S. Maddy said many from the fort were traveling for the holidays.

"The good thing here is if you had to have a storm like this, it couldn't happen at better time because we have the holiday season and so many people are visiting family and friends away from Fort Leonard Wood."

In Rolla, Judy Welch, 57, said she called her husband after the storm passed to tell him their home was gone but that she was able to account for their 13 dogs, including nine German shepherds. A number of cats that had scurried away hadn't returned.

"I kept praying to God. The house shook so bad, the windows were bowing and then going back to normal," Welch said.

Overnight storms damaged buildings and boat docks around Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri, leaving several boats adrift after wrenching them from their moorings. Several homes and businesses were damaged in the St. Louis County town of Sunset Hills, and a church was damaged in nearby Fenton.

In Illinois, a tornado may have touched down in Petersburg, northwest of Springfield, where about two dozen homes were damaged — some severely — and a woman was injured when her car was struck by a falling tree branch. Her injuries weren't believed to be life-threatening.

A tornado was spotted over Interstate 55 in Mississippi while broad swaths of Louisiana and Mississippi were under tornado watches as severe weather moved across the South. An approaching storm front has triggered a tornado watch for some West Tennessee counties.

Several flights to and from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at Highfill were delayed or canceled Friday morning until crews could clear debris littering the runway.

The region has been bracing for severe weather for much of the week. Gulf moisture riding southerly winds pushed temperatures into the upper 60s and 70s on Thursday — ahead of a cold front expected to drop temperatures into the teens by Saturday morning.

"This storm system has been showing significant signs that it could develop," said Chris Buonanno, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in North Little Rock who was monitoring the storms as they moved deeper into Arkansas. "Conditions are favorable for seeing a severe outbreak.

"In the winter you don't always have the instability" that would allow tornadoes to develop, Buonanno said. "This time, we have the instability."

While the spring brings most of the region's tornadoes, violent weather at this time of year isn't unheard of. A February 2008 outbreak killed 31 in Tennessee and 14 in Arkansas, and in January 1999 two separate outbreaks across the South killed 18, including seven in Arkansas.

A year ago, there were no tornado deaths nationwide between Oct. 9, 2009, and March 10, 2010.

Buonanno said there appears to be some association between changes in South Pacific Ocean temperatures and changes in the flow of the jet stream in the central part of the United States, causing an uptick in violent weather.

Friday's tornado fatalities are the first in the nation since Sept. 16, when a woman hit a falling tree while driving in Queens, N.Y., and a man was killed in his home at Belleville, W.Va. The deaths push this year's count to 42 nationally, and to 5 in Arkansas. The deaths in Missouri were its first of the year.

___

Associated Press writers Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Mo., Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock; and AP photo stringer April Brown in Cincinnati, Ark., contributed to this report.

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Texas sheriff on Jet Skier: 'All we want ... is a body' - Houston Chronicle

At a news conference on Thursday, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez discusses the disappearance of David Hartley from a lake that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.

ZAPATA — A Texas border sheriff on Thursday said he was calling directly on Zeta operatives to simply produce the body of a missing U.S. citizen believed shot and killed last week by drug gangs on Falcon Lake reservoir.

“All we want on this side is a body,” Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said at a news conference here attended by three congressmen and a host of other U.S. officials.

Gonzalez said he had made his entreaty privately through channels he could not disclose, but that now he was making his request public so the Zetas — an assassination hit squad now turned full-fledged cartel — would know he had no jurisdiction to go after them.

Mexican authorities resumed their search Thursday morning for the body of David Michael Hartley. This morning’s ongoing efforts, being conducted by at least 40 troops, comes one week after Hartley’s wife made a frantic 911 call reporting his slaying during a sightseeing trip.

There were conflicting media reports early Thursday suggesting that Mexican officials had stopped their search because of threats from drug cartels, prompting criticism from Gov. Rick Perry, who on Wednesday called on Mexican President Felipe Calderón to do a thorough search for the body.

Speaking in Houston, Perry, who's running for re-election, said he had not heard from Calderón. He was harshly critical of the Mexicans’ efforts to find the body.

“No, I’m not satisfied, I don’t think we’re doing enough. When you call off a search the way they did this morning, and give as the reason that the drug cartels are in control of that part of the state, something’s not right,” said Perry, after receiving the endorsement of the Houston Police Officer’s Union at their headquarters. “If they need some assistance, the United States needs to be visiting them about how we can give the assistance to take back control of that part of the state. "

“But we do not need to let our border continue deteriorate from the standpoint of having drug cartels telling us whether or not we can go in and bring back the body of an American that’s been killed, that is irresponsible,” Perry added.

Meanwhile, three members of the South Texas congressional delegation said they had called for more federal Homeland Security resources, not only along the border, but directly on Falcon Lake and Amistad reservoirs.

The congressmen said they wanted to emphasize that the incident did happen on Mexican waters and that people were safe to visit the U.S. side of the lake.

The ambush by three boatloads, as the couple was on Jet Skis viewing Mexican ruins, was the fifth reported confrontation with “pirates” on the border lake since the spring. It was the first involving a shooting death, followed by a gun chase extending to the U.S. side.

Tiffany Hartley and her family met Wednesday night with two Mexican state police commanders at an international crossing linking Roma, Texas, with the Mexican city of Miguel Aleman.

“I took them to the Roma ..... port of entry and brought them face to face with the two people that were in charge of the search,” Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said. “One of the things I wanted to do was make sure the family met up with the people in charge of the search and let them know that the Mexican government is indeed searching.”

Cuellar said officials on Wednesday searched a tributary where the reported incident had occurred, and planned Thursday morning to widen the search into the lake.

Family members said they were encouraged by the meeting.

“They were extending the courtesy to come out and to try to put us at ease,” said Paul Hartley, David Hartley’s uncle who traveled from Tucson, Ariz.

The Mexicans are frank about their fears searching an area under known control of traffickers protecting prime real estate for contraband. On either side of the 60-mile-long lake are long stretches of privately owned scrub land, with the U.S. side patrolled primarily by a handful of game wardens.

Eleven mayors have been killed, and police on all levels are under pressure to moonlight for the cartels. Kidnappings are rampant, as are threats to harm officials and their families.

“We don’t want that on our conscience,” Paul Hartley said.

Tiffany Hartley said it was difficult returning to the lake to observe the Texas efforts in the search Wednesday, as it brought back memories of how last week’s sunny day on the lake ended in horror.

Laying a wreath in the water from Tuesday night’s well-attended memorial service gave her some peace, she said, but closure won’t come until her husband’s body is found.

She said she’s hoping that by speaking publicly, the Obama administration will ramp up border security more than has already been done. She’s also dealing with a nation that largely doesn’t want to believe her, with some television personalities insinuating she killed her husband.

“How on earth could I want to live this life without him?” she said. “I can’t even imagine why people would think that I would do this to him. But there’s people who don’t know us.”

Houston Chronicle staff writer James Pinkerton contributed to this report.

lbrezosky@express-news.net

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